Modern single-cell analysis makes it possible to examine individual cells in great detail and determine their state, for example whether they are developing, undergoing pathological change or responding to a drug. Fabian Theis has made a major contribution to rendering the vast quantities of data generated in this way analysable and biologically interpretable with the help of artificial intelligence and mathematical models. As a result, snapshots of large numbers of individual cells can provide insights into how cells develop, how diseases arise and progress, and which treatments are likely to be successful.
A central focus of Fabian Theis’s work is the Human Cell Atlas, a major international project that aims to map all cell types in the human body and thereby create, in effect, a “periodic table of cells”. His computational models predict how cells differentiate and how they respond to drugs. In order to improve transferability to humans, his team links experimental data from mouse models with AI-based simulations. This makes it possible to model the influence of environmental factors or nutrition on cell development and to identify potential therapeutic targets. A forward-looking step in this direction is the Foundation Cell Model, which is intended to enable cellular responses to drugs to be predicted in computer models in the future. In the long term, such models could help to propose individually suitable therapies – an important step towards personalised medicine and personalised cell therapy.
Fabian Theis is a biophysicist, mathematician and computer scientist. Following research stays in Regensburg, Granada, Tokyo, Tallahassee, Espoo and Göttingen, he has held the Chair of Mathematical Models of Biological Systems at the TUM School of Computation, Information and Technology (CIT) at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) since 2013. Since 2022, he has also served as Scientific Director for Biomedical AI at the Helmholtz Pioneer Campus of Helmholtz Munich and heads the Computational Health Center. He has already received numerous awards for his research, including the Erwin Schrödinger Prize of the Helmholtz Association in 2017 and the Hamburg Science Award of the Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Hamburg in 2021. In 2023, he was awarded the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize of the German Research Foundation (DFG), Germany’s most prestigious research funding prize. The Leopoldina elected him a member of the Information Sciences Section in 2025.
The Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities has awarded its Academy Prize, endowed with €50,000, every two years since 1996 in recognition of outstanding scholarly achievements across all disciplines. Previous prizewinners include several Leopoldina members, among them Frank Bradke, Peter Schreiner, Hannah Monyer, Peter Scholze and Bernhard Schölkopf. The award ceremony for Fabian Theis will take place as part of the BBAW’s Leibniz Day on 15 June 2026.